Varèse Sarabande release Jim Copperthwaite's score for Steve McQueen the Man & Le Mans. The film is a documentary that looks at the making of the seminal Steve McQueen film, Le Mans. As a special bonus, the album also includes selections of Michel Legrand’s themes from the film Le Mans...

Jim Copperthwaite's score for Steve McQueen the Man & Le Mans is not what I was expecting from the soundtrack to a documentary about Steve McQueen and the making of his film Le Mans.

Firstly, Copperthwaite delivers some deeply layered themes, far more rich and beautiful than you'll be expecting from the usual documentary score. It's also diverse in its thematic styles. There's the piano based 'Camera Car'; electric guitar centric 'Battle Stations'; and the jazz-based 'Louise'.

The album contains 28 tracks (1 hr, 07 min, 38 sec), with the only segment that reminded me of someone else's work being 'Broken Dreamer', which brought to mind Rob Simonsen's score for The Age of Adaline.

It's an impressive album, and certainly one that you'll dig out and play for years to come. As an added bonus the final few tracks are Michel Legrand’s themes from the original 1971 Le Mans film.

9

Darren Rea